Romancing a Stranger

by Shady Grace

  He crouched down on the floor behind her and kissed the back of her head, rubbed her shoulders and down her arms. “Will you let me stay with you tonight?”

  After a long pause, Millicent nodded. He smiled against her hair.

  Finally.

  He helped her stand and settled his arm over her shoulder, holding her close as they left the study and made their way up to her bedchamber. Even though her odd reaction after they made love still festered in his stomach, a feeling of contentment swept over him knowing that tonight he would finally lie beside his wife and hold her all night long.

  “I like this new you,” he said, smiling.

  Millicent looked up through watery eyes. “Really?”

  “And I must say, when I found you in your nightgown the other morning, that disheveled look made me hunger for you.”

  He opened the door to her chamber, took her hand, and led her to the bed. He cupped her shoulders and gently guided her onto the mattress. “You captivate me.” Her eyes glinted from the lamp light. They looked like jewels for a thief. He kissed her lips, gently, exploring the sweetness of her soft mouth. When she sighed and lay back, he took the globe from her hands and placed it on the nightstand.

  “We need to remove your dress. I think I deserve your naked flesh.”

  “Oh, really?” she teased. “Well, I think I need some persuasion…”

  Warden chuckled, enjoying their little game of cat and mouse. He removed his boots, slid off his coat and tossed it on the floor, and then worked the fastenings of his trousers, all the while staring at her. “Am I convincing?”

  The trousers slid down his legs, gaining her rapt attention. Next, his shirt and underwear slid to the floor until he stood naked and hard before her.

  Millicent licked her lips. “Oh, yes.”

  This was all new to him. Though he’d had many sexual encounters before his marriage, with a variety of women from innocent ladies to practiced actresses, this was the first time Warden had shed his clothing before a woman. It was surprisingly exhilarating.

  Millicent crawled off the bed like a feline in heat and bent down. She did not give him the chance to ask what she was about before she took him in hand and rained kisses all over his cockhead.

  He stared down at her in shock. When did she suddenly want to do this? But he would not argue. No. He was no fool, and his cock was so stiff he could hang his wardrobe from it. Hadn’t he wanted her to make love to him? To shed her cold exterior and give in to the heat he knew she was capable of?

  She knelt down on the floor before him, wrapped a fist around his shaft, and gently stroked his manhood. Good Lord. He gritted his teeth, trying to maintain control as Millicent impaled her mouth on him, over and over again, with such precision he nearly fainted. Her soft hands gently massaged his balls in stride with her sucking.

  He groaned as his world tilted. Heat crept up the back of his spine, and when the sudden orgasm erupted, it nearly shook him to the core.

  Warden cupped her shoulders to keep from falling over, still trembling from the intensity, and when Millicent swallowed, he looked at her in complete shock.

  “Where did you learn this?” he asked, completely befuddled. He took a seat at the edge of the bed, waiting impatiently for her response.

  Millicent blushed and turned her face away from him. “Um…”

  Her lack of an answer pricked a nerve. The heat of anger and betrayal came over him. “Have you done this with another? How could you know what to do otherwise?”

  “No!” She whirled around and cupped his face in her hands, her eyes wide, pleading. “I haven’t been with a man in a long—” She let out a sharp breath. “I’m not the wife you think I am, Warden.”

  He pulled away from her and stood up. “All this talk of not being the wife I think you are is really testing me, Millicent. Yes, you have changed, but that does not answer my question.” He reached down and grabbed his clothing, prepared to leave. “How did you learn to do that? We made love once on our wedding night. Suddenly, six months later you are on your knees like a greedy streetwalker?”

  Tears slid down her cheeks. He hated himself for being so harsh, but nothing hurt more than believing his wife might have betrayed him.

  “I know these things from my life before,” she cried.

  “What life?” he shouted. “You were untouched when we married.”

  “If I tell you the truth, you won’t believe me.”

  “Try!”

  “I came from the year 2010.”

  Warden stared at her, open-mouthed, thinking she really had gone mad. He slid on his underwear, his mind spinning with questions. It was time to call on Doctor Crumpler and get to the bottom of this. Millicent was not making any sense. “This is ridiculous. Going back in time belongs in fiction.”

  “I can prove it! I was in the library one day doing research for the column I write. That’s right. I’m a writer!”—her voice rose to a shout when Warden’s eyes widened in shock—“I came across an old newspaper article from the Boston Globe. In two days’ time, a team of horses will be electrocuted on Boylston Street.”

  “Electrocuted—how?”

  “From traveling over the conduit track which was poorly installed. You’ll see. I’m not lying. By the end of the year, Boston Rapid Transit will begin training its conductors.”

  Warden had heard enough. He turned to leave. She grabbed his shoulders and tried to pull him back when he headed to the door, but he shrugged her off.

  He opened the door, paused, and glanced over his shoulder. “I thought this change in you was a good thing, but now, I’m not so sure. You seem to be a completely different person. You speak of things that do not make any sense. Nevertheless, to claim you came from the future is…madness. Pure madness, Millicent.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I do not know you anymore.”

  As he strolled down the hallway in his underwear, the sobbing from Millicent’s room brought his own tears to the surface.

  * * * *

  After the fiasco with Warden, Milli desperately wanted to go home. She was fucking embarrassed. If she had known giving him a blowjob would open up so much animosity from him, obviously she would’ve pretended to be a lady instead.

  But their explosive encounter in the study was a memory she’d keep forever. Heat crept up her neck and face just thinking about it, and her body still glowed from his touch.

  He’d enjoyed every second of her little gift in her room, his reaction said it all, but to accuse her of cheating because she could suck dick was a little overboard. Actually, a man of his time wouldn’t understand what women in her time did in bed. She supposed she couldn’t blame him for that. Still, he had made her feel cheap.

  Now he thought she was a crazy floozy who probably belonged in one of those institutions Josephine talked about.

  Maybe Josephine would know how to handle this. Better yet, she should be asking around about that gypsy. It couldn’t be too hard to find a Finnish Roma camp. She’d bet her life he knew exactly what was going on with her, and how to fix her dilemma. It was rumored that gypsies held mystical powers. Some people believed in it, others not so much. Considering her situation and the connection she had with that amethyst ball, she couldn’t afford to have any doubts.

  “There you are, Madam.”

  Milli broke the trance the globe had pulled her into and looked up to find Samson standing on the threshold of the living room—or parlor, as they called it here. She offered a smile, having come to love the portly man. “How’s it going, Samson?”

  He quirked a brow, looking confused. “Going, Madam? Where?”

  She giggled, still finding it hard to speak like a proper lady. “I meant to say, how are you doing on this fine day?”

  The elderly man smiled and entered the room. “Very well, thank you. Would you care for tea?”

  “Actually, I need something stronger. Can I have a drink in the study?”

  Samson’s lips curved slightly, and he cleare
d his throat. She had the distinct impression he wanted to laugh at her. “You don’t need my permission to go into the study, Madam.”

  “Oh. Right. Will you join me? I need some advice.”

  Samson seemed genuinely happy to offer his help. “Of course. Please, allow me.”

  He offered his arm and she gladly accepted, allowing him to lead her to the study. To think, just over a week ago she lived in a time where men rarely opened a door for a woman, never mind held out an arm.

  If not for the tension between her and Warden, she might want to stay here. Now that she had some time to think on it, what she had in the past was far more rewarding and exciting than what she had in the future. To think, how amazing would it be to write her columns in this day and age when women writers were a rarity? What a thrill!

  But her destiny entailed more than making up with Warden, or being a woman writer in the past. She had to get some answers.

  Once inside the study, Samson went directly to a cabinet.

  “Pour one for you, too,” she added.

  With a smile, Samson did as she ordered. She took a seat on one of the wingback chairs in front of the fire, sinking comfortably into the plush, velvet seat before taking the offered glass. “Thank you, Samson. You should get a raise.”

  Samson’s wise blue eyes danced with delight. “Thank you, and may I say you are a breath of fresh air. I’m delighted you are feeling better.”

  Milli gestured to the chair across from her. “Please.”

  Samson seemed shocked. She wondered how many times Warden shared a drink with his butler or offered him a comfortable seat. She might be from another time, but she knew butlers could always be trusted with their employer’s secrets. And they were probably the most unrecognized pillars of society.

  There was so much to learn about Warden and Josephine as well, and how to carry on like a lady. What if time took her away just when she was beginning to like it here?

  “Samson, how long have you worked for Mr. Blackwood?”

  He took a sip of his drink and regarded her curiously. “Mr. Blackwood is the master of this house, Madam, but I was in your family’s employ since before your birth.”

  She was about to have a drink, but her hand paused mid-lift. She stared at Samson, feeling a mixture of emotions. He’d been around since the beginning of the old Mrs. Blackwood. This would be the time to get some answers.

  “So, technically, you work for me.”

  The corners of his mouth tipped up, and his eyes glinted with amusement. “What is it you’re after, Madam?”

  Milli looked around the room, taking in all of the objects and possessions, before looking back at Samson. “Warden thinks I’m crazy.”

  He stared at her for a long moment before answering. “He does not think you are crazy, Madam, simply different. Sometimes things happen to a body that cannot be explained.”

  Milli leaned forward in her seat. “Samson, what was I like before?”

  His sharp stare softened. “You were always a troubled child. Terribly smart. Always searching for something more out of life. When your father forced you to marry Mr. Blackwood, you grew distant…quiet. It is an unfortunate thing when a child must pay for her father’s sins.”

  “What sins?”

  Samson looked away, his expression troubled. “Your father spent the family’s money building his shipping business. You were destitute.”

  Milli burst off the chair, startling Samson. She paced around the room, fitting the pieces of her past together, or, at least, the pieces of the other Millicent’s past. She spun around, her eyes wide. “Are you saying my father sold me to Mr. Blackwood?”

  He cleared his throat and looked down. It was all the answer she needed.

  The heat of anger and resentment flared in her cheeks. “Did Warden know about this?”

  Samson stood up and faced her. “Mr. Blackwood married you because he loves you, child. That is all that matters.”

  Tears pricked her eyes, and her shoulders slumped. Poor, poor Millicent. Forced to marry a man she didn’t love. Maybe she loved another…

  Her head snapped up as it dawned on her. “The note. The note said by dawn on the fourteenth day you must give your love to the right one, or everything will be as it was.”

  Samson frowned, looking lost. “I beg your pardon, Madam?”

  “The night of my birthday celebration, was I acting strangely?”

  “Well, you did swoon—”

  “No, before that.”

  Samson thought for a moment then his eyes widened. “Why, yes. You asked for your luggage because you were going on a trip. I never did understand what you meant, and then during the party you fainted.”

  “So she was leaving him.”

  “Who are we speaking of now, Madam?”

  Realizing Samson had no clue what she meant, she waved her hand in the air. “Nothing important. But I know what happened now.”

  The old Millicent Blackwood gave her true love to someone else.

  Chapter 5

  Warden walked along the harbor docks near the warehouse, his thoughts drifting to Millicent and their argument three nights past. He thought throwing himself into work, ensuring the liquor import and export was running smoothly, would gain him some measure of peace. He was wrong.

  Yesterday morning, he had picked up the Boston Globe and nearly choked on his coffee. A team of horses had been electrocuted on Boylston Street.

  Millicent was right, and it made him uneasy. How could she have known that would happen?

  His thoughts drifted back to the day his father told him to marry Millicent Bishop because her father’s ties to the Middle East would be beneficial to the business. Then, shortly after the wedding, Mr. Bishop took his own life, leaving Warden and Millicent to care for her younger sister, Josephine.

  He never knew why Bishop did what he did, but he was happy to save two others. Marrying Millicent was a duty, but he never expected to fall in love with her.

  His anger and frustration over her unexpected actions the other night had simmered down, but he still did not understand why, after ignoring him for so long, she would suddenly act with scandalous abandon. Accusing her of being unfaithful was wrong, yet it was how he felt in the moment. It had nearly driven him to Vivian St. Claire.

  Now he knew not what to do. He was not sure that he could trust her, though he had to admit her change in behavior was welcome and refreshing. At least she wanted his company now, but why? Had she had a change of heart? Did she simply lose her mind at the party and somehow transform into another woman?

  He could not be sure of anything anymore. And her knowledge of those horses being electrocuted only deepened his curiosity tenfold. Was she telling the truth? Could she really have come from the future? But how was it possible? And why did she look exactly like his wife, if she was truly another woman?

  Waves from the harbor lapped against the docks with a sound that soothed his soul some small degree. His cloak flapped against his legs as the wind picked up. A streak of light shot through the air and burst a few hundred yards away.

  What the hell—?

  He halted mid-step, staring at the spot where he had seen the flash. The sky was dark, the air quiet, as if nothing happened. What was the matter with him? First, the amethyst globe glowed on his desk and now fireworks were bursting before his eyes. Perhaps he was the one losing his mind.

  A man stepped out of the darkness ahead of him.

  Warden’s eyes widened as the familiar, long white hair of the Finnish Roma, Saska, came into focus.

  “Blackwood,” Saska said, in his cultured accent and raspy tone. “You look troubled. Is your new wife not of your liking?”

  His heartbeat quickened, and he drew in a sharp breath. “My new wife? What do you mean?”

  Saska smiled, making the wrinkles all over his leathery face more prominent. His ice blue eyes twinkled like a sorcerer’s. “When you came to me many weeks ago, you wanted true love, yes? I read it in yo
ur eyes…your heart. Has she not given hers in return?”

  The old man must have lost his marbles. “How…what…?” Yes, he had wanted Millicent to love him, but how could the old gypsy know that? As far as he was concerned, he bought an amethyst globe as a birthday gift, but did not really believe in the powers it supposedly held. “I do not understand.”

  “You are not meant to. Men are not meant to understand a woman, just as a woman is not meant to understand us. But she is pure in heart and soul. She comes from a place where good men are few and far between. She comes from a place where people fly!” He raised his hands in the air, dazzled by his own words. “I’ve seen her. The change has already begun.”

  “What change? Do you mean the way my wife has been acting?” Warden grabbed the lapels of Saska’s bright plaid coat and yanked him close. “What did you do to my wife?”

  Saska didn’t seem at all threatened by Warden’s roughhousing. In fact, he smiled, displaying a shiny gold tooth that sparkled under the harbor lights. “Which one? The woman who could not love you or the one who took her place?”

  Warden’s eyes bulged, and he stepped back, releasing his grip on Saska’s coat. “Impossible. She appears as she always had…” But she did not recognize me or Josephine, the house, the servants. And she knew things she had no right knowing. My god! The woman in my home is a stranger.

  But she was a stranger he loved. No matter where she came from, or how she got here, he still loved her with every fiber of his being.

  “How did you know this would work?”

  Saska grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “The amethyst ball is blessed and given to the bearer to give to his love. If that love is returned by dawn on the fourteenth day, their love will stay true forever. If it is not, all will be as it was.”

  As it was. Lonely nights. Separate lives. Bitter silence.

  He calculated how many days had passed since he handed Millicent the globe and cursed. “That’s less than two days away.”

  “Then you better hope you have not given her reason to turn away from you.”

  Warden balled his fists and nearly pummeled Saska to the ground. “You could have mentioned the time frame to me in the beginning,” he growled.